Teorie urbane, ingegneria militare ed utopia nelle città mediterranee del XVI° secolo. I casi di Sabbioneta e della Medina di Tripoli

Abstract

Sabbioneta is one of the few new Italian cities created in the 16th century. Founded by Vespasiano Gonzaga (1531-1591) between 1560 and 1570, it brings together many of the aspects that will characterize the post-16th century urban development in Italy, in the Mediterranean countries, and in Europe. The new bastioned defensive systems, created after the invention of firearms based on the scientific logics of "military engineers", a professional category which emerged at that time, increasingly spread in the abovementioned countries. Such defensive technique introduced an innovative configuration of the urban structure compared to the ancient one, which was before concentrated on central places such as the square, the cathedral and the municipal buildings. The new defensive system, with its ramparts, bastions and moats was located at the border of the city, distant from central places and became so important as to radically change the shape and plan of the city. The new urban geometries could even evoke the pure, simple and regular shapes of the ideal cities conceived by utopian philosophers, which were generally represented as central forms, and symbolic expressions of Thomas More’s Utopia perfect society. But this historical reference just remains a theoretical one. Sabbioneta and other fortified cities in the Mediterranean world, like Tripoli’s Medina after the 16th century Spanish military intervention, are the expression of a new view of the city, in which the defensive aspect constitutes the dominant character due to the revolution of firearms.